Men’s skincare brand The Daily started by backpacker lands huge partnerships
After spending years completing a law degree, this 28-year-old had a sudden realisation that the corporate world wasn’t for him.
Henry Weaver was travelling around India like a nomad when he realised the law degree he just finished in the UK was meaningless.
The now 28-year-old had a realisation there was more to life than getting a degree and finding a well-paid job only to enter the corporate rat race.
“I studied law at uni, got to the end of that, graduated and was planning to do a grad program, but I woke up one morning in sweats at 5.30am and thought this isn’t for me,” he explained.
“Six months later I was on plane to India and spent five months there which was life-changing,” he told news.com.au.
The travelling turned into a year and a half of globetrotting, with Henry landing in Sydney to do myriad jobs as a backpacker in Australia, from selling fruit and veg door-to-door to doing start-up sales and working in a recruitment job.
He was chatting with his wife over dinner one night when a news notification popped up revealing that skincare brand Glossier raised a whopping $52 million from investors in a fresh round of funding.
Henry wondered how the direct-to-consumer beauty brand managed to make so much money from selling cleansers and moisturisers online.
That’s when he realised there was a gap in the market for men’s skincare.
While there were more expensive brands such as Kiehl’s doing skincare for men and cheaper supermarket brands such as Nivea, he said there wasn’t much in between in the mid-range market that was affordable.
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“I thought, why is there nothing for men that isn’t supermarket products or the cost of your arm and leg for a bottle with the promise of a six-pack on it,” he said.
So in May 2019, Henry bought a Shopify website for about $100 and had a crack at selling men’s skincare online.
To his surprise, the idea caught on quickly and he was shocked that so many men were into skincare.
“Within its first week of launching, we sold $1600 worth of pre-sales,” he revealed.
Within a month of launching the e-commerce site, the small business was featured in Beauty Crew’s best product launches list.
That was the start of The Daily Men’s Skin Co, which has now had rampant success with a national partnership with men’s fashion retailer Politix and an international deal with a massive US retailer HomeGoods.
UPSCALING AND EXPANDING
In July 2019, the company was approached by US retailer HomeGoods to go into 300 stores across the US after discovering The Daily on Instagram, which Henry brings down to “luck”.
By August 2019, just three months after launching the e-commerce site, they were delivering their first retail store order to Botany Port to ship stock to the US.
The business grew exponentially at the start of 2020, with sales to customers in 10 countries across Europe, the US, South America, Asia, New Zealand and Australia, including Malaysia, Singapore, Brazil, France, Italy and Switzerland.
“That’s the beauty of doing an e-commerce brand. It enables you to switch on the marketing for another country and see what happens there,” Henry said.
Then men’s retailer Politix approached The Daily with a collaboration Henry couldn’t refuse.
By November 2020, The Daily skincare kits were selling in almost 100 Politix stores across Australia and New Zealand.
“Dealing with Politix has been a godsend for us as a company,” Henry said. “It’s upskilled us and it’s been critical for our growth.”
Henry is now seeing his business idea turn over sales in the tens of thousands every month.
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‘THROUGH THE ROOF’
When the pandemic struck, sales boosted even further on the back of customers turning to online shopping.
“E-commerce is through the roof,” he said. “People are definitely at home spending online. Any logistics company is expecting a super peak this year with online orders.”
Purchases have more than doubled in the last year for The Daily, with the average cart size at checkout having grown from $60 to more than $200 in 12 months. Even though the average cost of a product is $25, customers are checking out with bundles worth hundreds.
Henry revealed that many customers have turned into repeat business.
“We have a really high engagement rate from our customers. They continue to buy organically every two to three months. Once guys find something they like, they stick to it,” he said.
Henry said it’s all about producing high-quality products at affordable prices, with The Daily’s philosophy rooted in three core principles: no bullsh*t, simplicity and affordability.
The products also feature all the right buzzwords most skincare products scream these days: paraben-free, cruelty-free, 100 per cent natural, Australian made and owned, and vegan.
‘NOW IS THE TIME’
His advice to anyone out there who wants to start their own business is to just go for it.
“Now is the time to be doing it. There’s never been a better time,” Henry said.
“Ten years ago it wasn’t so easy to put together an e-commerce business. But now, Shopify is like $30 a month. It’s really easy to put up a site and it’s easy to scale,” he said.
The cost of setting up the business, including buying the stock and setting up the website, came to less than $5000 upfront, a small outlay for what has turned into a profitable e-commerce success.
Henry said it costs less than $1000 to run their website.
“With the pandemic, it’s a level playing field moving forward. There are opportunities left, right and centre coming up,” he said.
“Don’t sit and wait if you have an idea. In 12 months, someone else could have that idea and do something with it if you don’t.”
He added that for people “the biggest blocker to starting a business is themselves”.
“If you’ve got a good idea there isn’t a better time than now – just try it,” he said.
“Check whether this is something people want to buy. Spend time thinking about who is actually going to buy this. Keep it simple. And make sure you’re engaging with your customer,” he advised.
FUTURE FORWARD
Henry said the intention is to “keep doubling sales and it keep on the 200 per cent growth”.
While he said “it’s been one of the busiest years of my life”, there are no plans to slow down.
He revealed there are plans to continue collaborating with other businesses that make skincare affordable while continuing to scale up.
“The Daily is going to continue to work with amazing brands like Politix who have similar values and look to expand our offering – internationally and nationally – to our customers for what they use daily,” he said.
“We’re doing lots of co-collaboration. One that’s coming up with Hair Folli, another Australian brand. We’re launching a skincare brand with them in a month, off the back of the deal with Politix,” Henry revealed.
When he looks back on when he came up with the idea with his wife over dinner, they wondered what it would be like to build 1000 units. And when they achieved that, they wondered what it would be like to be doing 10,000 units – until they achieved that too.
“It was $100 bucks a week at the start. We’re now in the tens of thousands a month and it’s doubled this year to a $200 cart average,” he explained.
At the beginning they were targeting 21 to 35 year olds, but Henry said that they are guys anywhere from 18-year-olds to men in their 70s buying their products and said he aims to “keep it very simple for the everyday guy”.
“Male skincare is a thing now,” he said. “We’re seeing a lot more guys talking about skincare.”
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